A problem in emergency situations may be that people do not always behave in a controlled way, and they do not follow the predetermined escape routes. There can be many reasons for this. People do not necessarily observe the possible emergency escape routes and/or the markings pointing to said routes. Moreover, in emergency situations people tend to use routes that they are already familiar with.
Method and systems to guide evacuees out of a building are known in the art. There are various systems for guiding people in hazardous situations, for instance in case of fire, to the emergency escape routes of buildings or vessels. Among these systems, also systems are known with illumination arrangements of emergency escape routes, or emergency escape routes that are marked in some other way, for example by reflective paint or tape.
WO 09/153393, for instance, describes a method for controlling guiding, signal or alert lights, particularly signal lights, for an emergency escape route in a fire situation, in which method there are controlled sequentially arranged light sources, such as LED light sources. In the method, in the first step the sequentially arranged light sources, which are most advantageously arranged as a light source string or at least as part thereof, are activated, on the basis of a signal received from a fire detector, to be switched to a first mode, in which first mode the sequentially arranged light sources are used for indicating the direction of an escape route, and/or to a second mode, where the light sources are switched to emit continuous light. WO 09/153393 also relates to a system and a device.